Effective Tax Rate Calculator
Total tax over total income — the rate you actually pay, rather than the bracket you are in. Add federal, payroll, state and anything else you want counted, and see what share of income each one takes.
Your real rate
The income you want the rate measured against — usually gross income before deductions.
Total federal income tax for the year — line 24 of Form 1040, not the amount withheld from your pay.
Social Security and Medicare withheld from your pay, or self-employment tax if you file Schedule SE.
A figure you supply. Nothing on this site computes state tax, so this box is how it gets into the total.
Property tax, excise, anything else you want in the total. Use 0 to leave it out.
$16,407.50 of tax on $75,000 of income leaves $58,592.50.
- Total tax
- $16,407.50
- Income after tax
- $58,592.50
- Income it is measured against
- $75,000
| Tax | Amount | Share of income | Share of total tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax | $7,670 | 10.23% | 46.75% |
| Payroll tax (FICA or self-employment) | $5,737.50 | 7.65% | 34.97% |
| State and local tax | $3,000 | 4% | 18.28% |
| Other taxes | $0 | 0% | 0% |
An effective rate is total tax over total income. It is almost always well below your top bracket, because only the last slice of income meets that rate. Nothing above is looked up in a tax table: every figure is one you entered, added up and divided.
How the effective rate is worked out
This page does no tax lookup at all. Every figure in the result is one you entered, added up and divided — which is why it works for any country, any year and any combination of taxes you choose to include.
Total tax = Federal + Payroll + State & local + Other
Effective rate = Total tax ÷ Total income × 100
Share of income = Component ÷ Total income × 100
Share of total tax = Component ÷ Total tax × 100- Total income
- The income you want the rate measured against — usually gross, before deductions
- Component
- Any one of the four tax figures you entered
Two divisions here can have no answer, and both are handled rather than papered over. With no income there is no rate to state, so the result says so instead of printing 0% or infinity; with no tax entered there is no total to take a share of, and the share columns show a dash.
$75,000 of income, single, 2026 — the page’s defaults
A single filer on $75,000 in 2026 owes $7,670 of federal income tax and $5,737.50 of payroll tax; add $3,000 of state tax and the total is $16,407.50, an effective rate of 21.88% that leaves $58,592.50.
Two things fall out of that. Their top federal bracket is 22%, but federal income tax is only 10.23% of their income — the layers below and the standard deduction do that. And payroll tax, which never appears in a bracket table at all, is 34.97% of the whole tax bill against income tax’s 46.75%. These figures are pinned by unit tests.
What this calculator assumes
- Every figure is one you supply. Nothing is looked up, inferred or estimated from a tax table.
- Income and tax are for the same period — normally one tax year. Mixing a year’s tax with a month’s income produces a meaningless rate.
- State and local tax is your own figure. Nothing on this site computes it.
- Sales tax, property tax and excise are only included if you put them in the “other” box. Most published effective rates leave them out.
- Refundable credits that produce a negative tax are not supported; the components accept zero or more.
Calculators that fill in the boxes
- Federal income tax calculator — computes the federal figure from real IRS brackets.
- Take-home pay calculator — computes the payroll-tax figure for an employee.
- Self-employment tax calculator — the payroll figure when you work for yourself and owe both halves.
- Tax bracket calculator — the marginal rate this page is meant to be contrasted with.
Effective tax rate FAQ
What is an effective tax rate?
Total tax divided by total income, expressed as a percentage. It answers 'what share of everything I earned went to tax', which is a different question from 'what rate would my next dollar be taxed at'. The second is your marginal rate, and it is always higher.
Why is my effective rate so much lower than my tax bracket?
Because a progressive system taxes income in layers. If you are in the 22% bracket, only the income above that threshold meets 22% — the layers below are taxed at 10% and 12%, and the standard deduction shields the first slice entirely. A single filer on $100,000 in 2026 has a 22% marginal rate and roughly a 13% effective rate on gross income.
Should I include payroll tax in the calculation?
That is your choice, and it changes the answer a lot. Social Security and Medicare take 7.65% of most wages before income tax is even considered, so including them gives a far more honest picture of the total burden than federal income tax alone. Leave the box at 0 if you want the income-tax-only rate.
Does this calculate my state tax for me?
No. State and local income tax is a figure you supply. Nothing on this site computes state tax — fifty-one regimes with their own brackets, credits and reciprocity rules are not something to approximate and then present as your tax. The box exists so your own figure can be included in the total.
Where do I find my total federal income tax?
On your filed return rather than your payslip. On Form 1040 it is the total tax line, not the amount withheld and not the refund. Withholding is an estimate your employer makes across the year; the return is what the tax actually came to.
What does 'share of total tax' mean in the table?
How much of your whole tax bill each component makes up. It often surprises people: for a median earner, payroll tax is a larger share of the total than federal income tax, which is why looking only at brackets understates what leaves the paycheck.
Sources and review notes
- IRS — About Form 1040, where the total tax figure comes from
- IRS Topic No. 751 — Social Security and Medicare withholding rates
This page performs arithmetic on figures you enter and looks nothing up, so there are no bracket or limit figures to verify. The division-by-zero cases are covered by deterministic unit tests. No tax professional review is claimed yet.